Found in Zaire, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in woodlands at elevations of 800 to 1600 meters as a large sized, warm to cool growing sub-mycoheterotrophic orchid with purple-brown when young, turning greyish with age stems and carrying 3, purple-brown, bract-like leaves that blooms in the spring on a lax, up to 20-flowered inflorescence. There are no leaves present at flowering.